When launching a new business, entrepreneurs often fill multiple roles and oversee many aspects of the operation themselves. While most business owners know that a strong marketing and public relations strategy is crucial for driving growth and success, it can be tough to do it all on their own, especially with so many other tasks on their plate and limited resources. That’s where a marketing and PR agency comes in – to help develop and execute effective marketing and PR campaigns that reach new audiences, build brand awareness, and drive sales.
So how do you know when it’s time to offload the marketing and public relations responsibilities? In this blog post, we’ll dive into some key reasons a company may decide whether to bring a marketing and PR agency on board.
Level Up Professionally
One of the most common reasons a company decides to hire a marketing or PR agency is because it has reached a point in its growth where a marketing generalist – a singular “jack of all trades” – won’t cut it. When a full suite of marketing and PR services at a professional level is required, but the company can’t afford or does not need a full-time, expert-level staff in each discipline, it’s probably time to hire an agency. With the right agency, you gain access to professional brand strategists, graphic designers, web developers, a public relations team, digital advertising experts, social media strategists, and more. Each member of the team is available to you as needed and works seamlessly with other agency members, giving you the comprehensive marketing and PR expertise to help you achieve your goals.
Sometimes that growth occurs seemingly overnight. When a company experiences accelerated growth in a short period of time, it might be in need of an ‘instant’ marketing team, without the luxury of time to hire individual experts in each discipline (not to mention the risk of bringing on full-time staff members who may not be experienced or quick enough to get the job done right away). While an agency should be looked at as an outside resource that augments internal marketing staff, an agency can deliver an effective temporary solution for the role of a marketing executive – or an entire marketing team.
Likewise, the world of marketing evolves rapidly, so it often makes sense to hire an agency who is constantly up to date on the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. This often includes:
- Web/app development
- Digital advertising
- Social media
- Industry research
- Competitor research
- Benchmarking KPIs
Freshen Up Your Approach
When sales are low, or your internal team isn’t providing new, innovative, and creative approaches to your business, an agency gives you a fresh, unbiased look at what is/isn’t working. An agency can look at your business and processes through a new lens and consider experiences from a variety of industries and businesses to provide recommendations on how your company could better communicate and promote your product or service.
If you continually bring the same solution to a recurring problem, you’ll keep getting the same result. The same applies for creative marketing strategies. Your in-house marketing team may have deep knowledge of your industry and challenges, but the fresh perspective of an agency will leverage new creative thinking from an entire team of experienced people.
In a changing marketplace, companies often find themselves wanting to attract a new target market to remain competitive, especially if a new competitor enters their product or service category that threatens their sales and market share. This means it’s time to shake things up with your marketing and PR efforts, potentially through leveraging a co-branding or marketing/licensing opportunity with a third-party brand or nonprofit to introduce their brand to yours and vice-versa. With the help of an agency experienced in reaching multiple audiences through working in different verticals, you gain instant access to an array of creative co-branding opportunities.
Major Events and Milestones
For companies planning a major event, such as an annual celebration, award dinner, product launch, or special campaign, hiring an agency can be especially beneficial to help ramp up their marketing and PR efforts. An agency can help plan and execute a comprehensive campaign that effectively communicates the event or initiative to the public and media, helps build excitement and anticipation, and maximizes the potential for positive coverage and impact.
Similarly, if a company is celebrating a significant anniversary or achieving a major milestone, such as a 100th anniversary, opening of a new HQ, entry into a new market, transformational new product line, etc., a marketing and PR agency can help capitalize on the celebration by creating a campaign that effectively communicates the achievement and generates positive coverage.
Crisis Communication/Reputation Management
A marketing and PR agency can help companies navigate sensitive situations through crisis management, which can be crucial in the event of a product contamination, recall, or other crisis that threatens the company’s sales, market share and/or reputation. An agency will help create a crisis management plan, provide messaging guidance, and help navigate media and public relations to help protect the company.
Outgrown Your “Why”
A company’s growth and evolution can also lead to confusion with internal and external stakeholders. If you find yourself asking your internal stakeholders what your company stands for, or more specifically, what’s the “why” behind your brand, and you get different answers from each, it’s time to hire an agency. Strong brands thrive when they fully expose their values. If leadership is inconsistent in executing “their interpretation” of your brand, there’s a high probability your brand is fractured, lacks uniformity, and is unable to genuinely connect with the target audiences you seek.
A marketing and PR agency can help you analyze your brand purpose and positioning (in its current state and where you want it to be), communicate that to your internal stakeholders, and help steer your external messaging to get your brand back on track.
Ready to Blast Off?
These are just a few of the dozens of reasons companies decide to hire a marketing and PR agency. If you’re asking yourself if it’s time to hire an agency to help you achieve your goals, the answer is probably yes. Contact us today for help with marketing and public relations strategies to launch your business into the next stratosphere.